The Pew Internet Project has found that the internet has a significant impact on decisions about which school to attend, but it does not play a big role in other “major life moments.” Is there something similar in health care? Are there conditions and diseases which are more likely to yield to an e-patient’s ability to change the outcome? Is it enough that e-patients are more informed and feel empowered by information, or should we expect more?
Three Simple Rules–Susannah Fox
When in 2002 we came out with our bold new concept of “information therapy” I was sure that Tom would love the idea of doctors or health plans prescribing information to consumers. He didn’t. He was concerned that the prescribed information from clinicians would undermine the patient’s right or ability to search for information from other self-helpers…
…I think I am there—but then Tom might still not agree—for I still think that the self-help world will work better when the patient is also being prescribed information as a part of the process of care.
Daily Kaizen–Susannah Fox
I just rediscovered Daily Kaizen, a health care provider blog that maintains an e-patients perspective. I think Ted Eytan, one of the blog’s authors, lives in the future, so I’m always curious to see what he’s up to. – Susannah Fox
Online Patient Groups
Laura Landro’s column in the Wall Street Journal features a series of profiles of online patient groups like MPDinfo.org and ACOR.org, among others. Now seems like the right time to post some data that I’ve been holding back, waiting for the right opportunity to talk about it publicly.
Wikipedia as an e-patient source–Susannah Fox
Read this quote and think about which industry is being admonished: “We cannot, however, continue to reject Wikipedia because we aren’t comfortable with the wiki process itself… To be quite frank, continually bad-mouthing Wikipedia to the very people who use it—successfully—makes us look a bit daft. It would be much more productive to teach [people] […]
Health Search–Susannah Fox
Bill Tancer is the general manager of global research at Hitwise and writes a column for Time.com called “Science of Search.” His recent column on “Restless Leg, Mumps and Other Maladies” addressed the effect of media attention to certain conditions & diseases. The column is a neat summary of a pattern we had noticed: The […]
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